Without limiting the scope of the invention, its background is described in connection with a novel separation process for separating lipid oils from an algal biomass.
Approximately, two-thirds of the petroleum imported into the U.S. comes from the Middle East primarily from Saudi Arabia and Iran. This dependence on Middle Eastern oil shackles U.S foreign policy. Elimination of the U.S. dependence will involve hard work and multiple approaches. One popular approach towards energy independence is the transformation to alternate energy sources such as biodiesel1 produced from various biomasses.
There are many biomasses that could potentially be used to produce biodiesel. However, biodiesel production from microalgal lipids has proven to be very promising. Production of oil from microalgae has been described in US Patent Application No. 20080160593 (Oyler, 2008).2 The application describes a process for production of biofuels from algae that includes cultivating an oil-producing algae by promoting sequential photoautotrophic and heterotrophic growth. The method can further include producing oil by heterotrophic growth of algae wherein the heterotrophic algae growth is achieved by introducing a sugar feed to the oil-producing algae. The algal oil can be extracted from the oil-producing algae, and can be converted to form biofuel.
US Patent Application No. 20090043118 (Kozyuk, 2009)3 describes a method comprising applying a controlled flow cavitation apparatus to a biodiesel production process in order to increase fatty acid alkyl ester yield. A feedstock comprising free fatty acids can be passed through a controlled flow cavitation apparatus at a velocity capable of generating a hydrodynamic cavitation zone where the free fatty acids can be esterified. One or more controlled flow cavitation apparatuses can be applied at various points of a biodiesel production process.
US Patent Application No. 20090000941 (Kropf, 2009)4 describes an invention relating generally to chemical reactions and processes, and in particular to a method for enhancing the rate of a chemical reaction and to apparatus for carrying out the method. The invention more particularly relates to methods and apparatus which utilize microwave and ultrasonic energy to enhance chemical reaction rates; and in specific instances, the invention relates to methods, processes and apparatus for the synthesis of biodiesel fuels. The methods, processes and apparatus of the invention are useful for the synthesis of biodiesel fuels; and also useful for production of reaction products of esterification and/or transesterification reactions including fatty acid alkyl esters.